Franz Liszt

In a time of solace and Romanticism 
ordained the great Franz Liszt, 
he was one of the greatest pianists of all time,
he lived among the greats of his time, including
Richard Wagner, Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann,
Camille Saint-Saens, Mikhail Glinka, Hector Berlioz,
Ole Bull, Edvard Grieg, Alexander Borodin, and Joachim Raff;
Liszt was the Bavarian Hungarian, his exquisite genius
lain primarily with his power of hypnotism, 
his symphonic and polyphonic rhythms were
contributed by his octo-dactyl-hand-speed;
witnesses say he could stop charging horses in their tracks
while playing outdoors touring Europe, 
no one could master or match his feat of mysticism,
his generosity, after the Great Fire of Hamburg,
where the ambush of fire lasted three long days,
gave concerts in aid of the poor thousands of homeless there
in that hellish inferno;
yet, like all musicians the fraught of tragedy
cometh through the doorway of time
unprepared, unannounced, and always unwelcomed,
deaths of his son and daughter took away 
any glimpse of recovering his youth, Liszt took
his hiatus and shelter from the grueling stage
at Madonna del Rosario, just a few miles from Rome,
now, Abbe Liszt became an honorary canon of Albano;
he wandered from the monastery, back to Weimar, and 
toured Europe once again traveling by rail amassing over
4,000 miles a year during this period of his rebuttal fame;
though his metronome stopped on July 31, 1886. 

 - John Hardesty